THE BEST MIDI CONTROLLERS IN 2021!!!

so which controller would i recommend [Music] what's going on everyone it's your boy cedric welcome back to sweet scale tv so to start the year i share with you my favorite effects vsts and in today's episode i'm going to share with you the best midi controllers in 2021 now i got three of the five mini controllers in studio so we're gonna check those out but before we get started i gotta thank the producer community for showing so much love and support you gotta appreciate every single milestone and i really do when you're first starting a channel it just seems so unrealistic but you guys showed so much support and so much love so thank you so very much and if you haven't already joined the sweet scale family we still got room for you hit the subscribe button as well as the bell notification alright so there are four key factors i consider before picking up a midi controller number one is price number two how the keys or notes feel number three how the midi controller integrates with my daw in this case i'm using ableton but these midi controllers integrate with logic pro fl studio cubase pretty much every major daw last but not least the software that comes with the midi controller we're starting off with the archery keylab 49 i've had this midi controller for about a year and this retails for 6.29 the keylab61 retails for 6.99 i went with a smaller keyboard this was the first time i went with 49 keys as opposed to 61. the keys feel very good and integrating the archery keylab 49 with ableton is amazing i can easily switch over to user and use the drum pad i love the fact that the keylab 49 comes with 8 channels as well as a master channel if i'm in the session view i can scroll through different scenes i can also click on view and now i'm in an arrangement view you can also activate and deactivate the metronome you can easily solo a channel arm and disarm automation as well as you have an undo button the knobs on top of the faders control the panning the pitch wheel is really stiff in a good way and the mod wheel feels great i love the fact that these are metal i really really enjoy this keyboard and if you're big into archery of vsts you're going to love the integration that you can do with the keylab 49 another great factor for such a powerful keyboard is you only need a usb connection to power up this controller not only do you get an amazing keyboard but you also get piano v ableton light as well as analog lab another great factor about this midi controller is you have the option to get it in either black or white now there are just a few cons the pads aren't the greatest pads if you're using this controller for drum pads you really gotta hit these drum pads that's not a big deal for me because i use the push too but if you don't use the push too that's something you're gonna want to consider and number two the keys feel very good they don't feel great the keys are fairly loud you know even just pushing down slightly if you're a keyboardist that loves to go up and down play solos that's something you're going to want to consider i don't want to sound too picky but again it's a minor thing it might be just my preference i probably wouldn't have gotten another keyboard if i had gotten 61 keys the pros drastically outweigh the cons there's so many great things about the archery key lab whether you're using the 49 or 61 keys up next we got the novation sl61 mk3 this keyboard is fairly new to me i've had this for i want to say six months retails for about 900 dollars as i mentioned before i really like the arcturia keylab 49 there was a couple reasons why i bought this controller number one i needed the extra octave 49 keys wasn't cutting it anymore and number two although the archery keylab 49 is semi-weighted i didn't feel like it was a true semi-weight this integrates extremely well with ableton but you're also able to hook up hardware synths now i'm really not about that life but if you are i would highly recommend the sl mk3 you can easily navigate from channel to channel by using the buttons above the drum pad or you can use the track buttons i really love the drum pad setup because it's easier for working on the live performance or when you're working in the arrangement view now in the arrangement view you can use the fast forward or rewind buttons of course you have your stop play record and this button right here would turn on your loops pitch and mod will also feel amazing now a couple of really cool features i like are your scales mode so if i go over to scale right now i have it set at c major but you have all these different scale modes you can choose from so we got the natural minor [Music] i have snap mode turned on so i can play anything and stay in the natural minor [Music] scale [Music] another really cool feature is the sequencer mode so let's say you're not really a keyboardist or let's say you are but you don't want to play keys for some reason what the sequencer mode allows you to do is play chords and save those chords in a specific sequence or slot now the great thing is you don't have to play the chord all at once as long as i'm holding down on that specific sequence i can keep adding notes so let's say i'm playing in c major or let's try c sharp major so i'm going to go [Music] but let's say i want to add to that i can do so that is one sequence i'm adding to the sequence and i played a wrong note i can just hold down on the sequence and get rid of that wrong note so in just a few minutes i came up with a chord progression so now i no longer have to play the keys [Music] the drum pads on the sl mk3 feel absolutely amazing you don't need to push too hard on them they are really sensitive it has eight faders as opposed to nine faders i really really love this keyboard again i've mainly got it because it feels good now when it comes to software all you get with the sl mk3 is ableton lite i think this keyboard would be perfect if it had a master knob kind of like the keylab 49 or native instruments s61 a master fader unfortunately this doesn't have a master fader so i mini controlled the last channel to control my master channel i also wish it had an undo and redo button and a view button so you can go back and forth between the session view and arrangement view if it had those four features it would be perfect now before i start talking about complete control s61 i gotta give a huge shout out to native instruments for hooking me up with this keyboard really really appreciate it i'm excited to use it and i'm excited to talk about it the keys feel absolutely amazing [Music] yeah they feel great [Music] using this controller in ableton you can control the faders now if you're watching off the screen you'll notice it jumps up and down but when you're watching it off of ableton it's not as bad to scroll through different channels you would use the master knob and just go up and down to go from scene to scene you would push the knob from left to right another factor i love is the fixed velocity you've got your play stop record metronome loop tap tempo you also have an undo and redo button so you can definitely get the basics done in ableton however i love using the s61 with complete control to go from the mixer to complete control you'd hit plug-in and let's bring in an instrument once you open up complete control you really don't need a mouse or keyboard you can do everything with this midi controller once you're in the browser mode you can go through all the instruments from native instruments but you can also use third-party instruments meaning plug-ins that are not from native instruments like arturia auto modeling output yuhi and waves so let's go over to yuhi now i got uh selected and i can either go through diva hive repo repo five or zebra two let's go with diva i can double click and bring diva in and i'm gonna go browse through diva i'm gonna look for a synth lead and i'm gonna go with the soft synth lead i like that so let's load that now i can control diva by just using the s61 [Music] say i don't like this instrument i can always go back and choose a different plugin now that i'm using complete control i can use this scale mode and i'm using the major scale but we can always go with the minor scale key mode is mapped so it doesn't matter what i play i'm gonna play a minor scale i can go with the arpeggio mode we can control the rhythm if it goes up or down and again i can just go right back to the plug-in and we can add an effect so if i want to add the cla 76 hit enter now i can control the cla 76 with the knobs on the midi controller this is my first time scrolling through native instruments just using the controller and i found myself getting more and more comfortable and that only took 10-15 minutes and i've only scrolled through complete control with the controller today as i'm shooting this episode i thought it would be a lot more complicated it's really simple now the s61 comes with complete select there's a lot that this keyboard comes with if you pick up the s61 you might want to try your hand at machine i used to use machine every single weekend when i used to perform i mainly used it for drum loops but you can use machine for creating an entire beat and the workflow with machine and the s61 would be absolutely amazing now if you're looking for the basic starter midi controller i would consider the m audio 49 or 61 4th generation midi controller it does come with drum pads as well as ableton lite now the keys aren't the greatest but they are velocity sensitive it is half the price of the keylab 49 and it's a third of the price of the novation and native instruments midi controller another midi controller to check out is the akai mpk61 now i don't know much about this but i do have some friends that have this controller and they swear by it they love it it also comes with ableton light as well as some software the keys are semi-weighted my producer friends swear by it they say it's amazing so i'd recommend you do some research on that controller to see if it's the right fit for you so which controller would i recommend it all depends on what you're looking at doing if you're a huge archuria fan you love the arctic instruments you might want to go with the keylab 49 or the keylab61 if you're in the live performances i would consider the archery keylab 49 or novations sl mk3 if you're looking for really good controls but you also want some software i would recommend either the keylab 49 or the s61 because not only are they really good controllers but they come with software from arturia and native instruments if the way the keys and notes feel is extremely important i would consider either the sl mk3 from novation or native instruments s61 if you need drum pads you're going to find drum pads on the sl mk3 or the key lab 49 or 61. and if you're a huge native instruments fan you're going to want to consider the s61 so which midi controller are you considering picking up drop a comment below got a lot of content coming your way once again 25k really appreciate it on the way to 30k if you haven't already joined the sweet scale family hit the subscribe button as well as the bell notification it's your boy cedric from sweet scale tv signing out i'll see you in the next [Music] episode

Channel: - SweetScale TV -

Views: 20,371

Rating: 4.9215684 out of 5

Keywords: best midi keyboard 2020, best midi controller, best midi keyboard 2021, best midi keyboard for ableton, best 61 key midi keyboard, midi keyboard tutorial, top midi controllers, best midi controllers 2020, midi controllers review, best midi keyboard, cheap midi keyboard, best midi keyboard controllers, midi keyboard reviews, best midi keyboards, best controller 2020, novation sl mk3, arturia keylab 49, novation sl mk3 ableton, native instruments s61, s61 komplete kontrol

Id: -BerCa1eJLs

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021